My Darling Clementine Movie Review (1946) | Roger Ebert Tweet "What kind of town is this?” Wyatt Earp asks on his first night in Tombstone. “A man can't get a shave without gettin' his head blowed off.” He gets up out of the newfangled barber's chair at the Bon Ton Tonsorial Parlor and climbs through the second-story window of a saloon, his face still half lathered, to konk a gun-toting drunk on the head and drag him out by the heels. Advertisement Earp ( Henry Fonda ) already knows what kind of town it is. In the opening scenes of John Ford's greatest Western, “My Darling Clementine” (1946), he and his brothers are driving cattle east to Kansas. Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan leave their kid brother James in charge of the herd and go into town for a shave and a beer. As they ride down the main street of Tombstone, under a vast and lowering evening sky, gunshots and raucous laughter are heard in the saloons, and we don't have to ask why the town has the biggest graveyard west of the Rockies.

Ford's story reenacts the central morality play of the Western. Wyatt Earp becomes the town's new marshal, there's a showdown between law and anarchy, the law wins and the last shot features the new schoolmarm--who represents the arrival of civilization. Most Westerns put the emphasis on the showdown. “My Darling Clementine” builds up to the legendary gunfight at the OK Corral, but it is more about everyday things--haircuts, romance, friendship, poker and illness. At the center is Henry Fonda's performance as Wyatt Earp. He's usually shown as a man of action, but Fonda makes him the new-style Westerner, who stands up when a woman comes into the room and knows how to carve a chicken and dance a reel. Like a teenager, he sits in a chair on the veranda of his office, tilts back to balance on the back legs and pushes off against a post with one boot and then the other. He's thinking of Clementine, and Fonda shows his happiness with body language. Advertisement Earp has accepted the marshal's badge because when he and his brothers returned to their herd, they found the cattle rustled and James dead.

There is every reason to believe the crime was committed by Old Man Clanton ( Walter Brennan ) and his “boys” (grown, bearded and mean). An early scene ends with Clanton baring his teeth like an animal showing its fangs. Earp buries James in a touching scene. (“You didn't get much of a chance, did you, James?”) Then, instead of riding into town and shooting the Clantons, he tells the mayor he'll become the new marshal. He wants revenge, but legally. The most important relationship is between Earp and Doc Holliday ( Victor Mature ), the gambler who runs Tombstone but is dying of tuberculosis. They are natural enemies, but a quiet, unspoken regard grows up between the two men, maybe because Earp senses the sadness at Holliday's core. Holliday's rented room has his medical diploma on the wall and his doctor's bag beneath it, but he doesn't practice anymore. Something went wrong back East, and now he gambles for a living, and drinks himself into oblivion. His lover is a prostitute, Chihuahua ( Linda Darnell ), and he talks about leaving for Mexico with her.

But as he coughs up blood, he knows what his prognosis is. The marshal's first showdown with Holliday is a classic Ford scene. The saloon grows quiet when Doc walks in, and the bar clears when he walks up to it. He tells Earp, “Draw!” Earp says he can't--doesn't have a gun. Doc calls for a gun, and a man down the bar slides him one. Earp looks at the gun, and says, “Brother Morg's gun. The other one, the good-lookin' fellow--that's my brother, Virg.” Doc registers this information and returns his own gun to its holster. He realizes Earp's brothers have the drop on him. “Howdy,” says Doc. “Have a drink.” Advertisement Twice Doc tells someone to get out of town, and twice Earp reminds him that's the marshal's job. Although the Clantons are the first order of business, Doc and Earp seem headed for a showdown. Yet they have a scene together that is one of the strangest and most beautiful in all of John Ford's work.

A British actor ( Alan Mowbray ) has come to town to put on a play, and when he doesn't show up at the theater, Earp and Holliday find him in the saloon, on top of a table, being tormented by the Clantons. The actor begins Hamlet's famous soliloquy, but is too drunk and frightened to continue. Doc Holliday, from memory, completes the speech, and could be speaking of himself: “ ... but that the dread of something after death, the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns, puzzles the will ... .” The gentlest moments in the movie involve Earp's feelings for Clementine (Cathy Downs), who arrives on the stage from the East, looking for “Dr. John Holliday.” She is the girl Doc left behind. Earp, sitting outside the hotel, rises quickly to his feet as she gets out of the stage, and his movements show that he's in awe of this graceful vision. Clementine has been seeking Doc all over the West, we learn, and wants to bring him home. Doc tells her to get out of town. And Chihuahua monitors the situation jealously.

Clementine is packed to go the next morning when the marshal, awkward and shy, asks her to join him at the church service and dance. They walk in stately procession down the covered boardwalk, while Ford's favorite hymn plays: “Shall We Gather at the River?” When the fiddler strikes up, Wyatt and Clementine dance--he clumsy but enthusiastic, and with great joy. This dance is the turning point of the movie, and marks the end of the Old West. There are still shots to be fired, but civilization has arrived. Advertisement The legendary gunfight at the OK Corral has been the subject of many films, including “Frontier Marshal” (1939), “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” (1957), “Tombstone” (1993, with Val Kilmer's brilliant performance as Doc) and “ Wyatt Earp ” (1994). Usually the gunfight is the centerpiece of the film. Here it plays more like the dispatch of unfinished business; Ford doesn't linger over the violence.

There is the quiet tenseness in the marshal's office as Earp prepares to face the Clantons, who've shouted their challenge that they'd be waiting for him at the corral. Earp's brothers are with him, because this is “family business.” Earp turns down other volunteers, but when Doc turns up, he lets him take part, because Doc has family business, too (one of the Clanton boys has killed Chihuahua). Under the merciless clear sky of a desert dawn, in silence except for far-off horse whinnies and dog barks, the men walk down the street and take care of business. John Ford (1895-1973) was, many believe, the greatest of all American directors. Certainly he did more than any other to document the passages of American history. For him, a Western was not quite such a “period film” as it would be for later directors. He shot on location in the desert and prairie, his cast and crew living as if they were on a cattle drive, eating out of the chuckwagon, sleeping in tents. He filmed “My Darling Clementine” in his beloved Monument Valley, on the Arizona-Utah border.

Advertisement He made dozens of silent Westerns, met the real Wyatt Earp on the set of a movie and heard the story of the OK Corral directly from him (even so, history tells a story much different from this film). Ford worked repeatedly with the same actors (his “stock company”) and it is interesting that he chose Fonda rather than John Wayne , his other favorite, for Wyatt Earp. Maybe he saw Wayne as the embodiment of the Old West, and the gentler Fonda as one of the new men who would tame the wilderness. “My Darling Clementine” must be one of the sweetest and most good-hearted of all Westerns. The giveaway is the title, which is not about Wyatt or Doc or the gunfight, but about Clementine, certainly the most important thing to happen to Marshal Earp during the story. There is a moment, soon after she arrives, when Earp gets a haircut and a quick spray of perfume at the Bon Ton Tonsorial Parlor. Clem stands close to him and says she loves “the scent of the desert flowers.” “That's me,” says Earp.

“Barber.” Popular Blog Posts Amazon.com: The Return Of Frank James: Henry Fonda, Gene Tierney, Jackie Cooper, Henry Hull: Amazon Digital Services LLC By Mcgivern Owen L on August 4, 2013 Format: DVD Verified Purchase As has happened so often in the past, this reviewer was introduced to this movie by watching a snippet on Turner Classic Movies. "The Return of Frank James" is a real sleeper and pleasant surprise. RFJ is a sequel to the 1939 success of "Jesse James" with Tyrone Power. Now he will wish to see that one too! Many of the players from JJ are back, albeit with Fritz Lang replacing Henry King at the helm. When Jesse is murdered at the outset, brother Frank (Henry Fonda) has to strap on his pistols, forget about being a gentleman farmer and go after the owlhoots who did in his brother. Most of the action flows nicely with some very entertaining sidebars. The work of the supporting cast is very credible, especially Donald Meek playing a hounding railroad detective with a penchant for showing up everywhere. The trial of Frank for murder and robbery is well handled. George Barbier, as the trial judge is outstanding.

Does Fonda get his revenge and live happily ever after? No plot give aways here-folks will just have to watch the movie to find that out but will be happy they did. Viewers may wish to contrast HF's vengeful Frank James with his vindictive Wyatt Earp of "My Darling Clementine", filmed six years later. Special mention goes to 20 year old Gene Tierney, in her Hollywood debut. Talk about a little scene stealer-she almost walks off with the entire picture! After that fadeout did Frank go back to his farm in Missouri or follow that beautiful young woman to Denver? The studio apparently had to avoid that subject to head off a lawsuit from the real life James family. Sad...we'll never know. Henry Fonda Henry Fonda Henry Fonda, Генри Фонда, Henrijs Fonda, Генри Джейнс Фонда, Henry Jaynes Fonda, Henry Jaynes Fonda,, Categories: Person Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982) was an American film and stage actor. Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor.

He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins. He made his Hollywooddebut in 1935, and his career gained momentum after his Academy Award-nominated performance as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath, a 1940 adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel about an Oklahoma family who moved west during the Dust Bowl. Throughout six decades in Hollywood, Fonda cultivated a strong, appealing screen image in such classics as The Ox-Bow Incident, Mister Roberts and 12 Angry Men. Later, Fonda moved both toward darker epics as Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West and lighter roles in family comedies like Yours, Mine and Ours with Lucille Ball. Fonda was the patriarch of a family of famous actors, including daughter Jane Fonda, son Peter Fonda, granddaughter Bridget Fonda, and grandson Troy Garity. His family and close friends called him "Hank". In 1999, he was named the sixth-Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute.

Family history and early life The Fonda surname originated with immigrants from Genoa, Italy, to the Netherlands, in the 15th century. In 1642, a branch of the Fonda family immigrated to the Dutch colony of New Netherland, on the East Coast of North America. They were among the first Dutch population to settle in what is now upstate New York, establishing the town of Fonda, New York. By 1888, many of their descendants had relocated to Nebraska. Henry Fonda was born in Grand Island, Nebraska, to advertising-printing jobber William Brace Fonda, and his wife, Elma Herberta (née Jaynes), in the second year of their marriage. Fonda was brought up as a Christian Scientist, though he was baptized anEpiscopalian at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church[citation needed] in Grand Island. He said, "[M]y whole damn family was nice." They were a close family and highly supportive, especially in health matters, as they avoided doctors due to their religion. Despite having a religious background, he later on became an agnostic.

Fonda was a bashful, short boy who tended to avoid girls, except his sisters, and was a good skater, swimmer, and runner. He worked part-time in his father's print plant and imagined a possible career as a journalist. Later, he worked after school for the phone company. He also enjoyed drawing. Fonda was active in the Boy Scouts of America; Teichmann reports that he reached the rank of Eagle Scout. When he was about fourteen, his father took him to observe a lynching, from the window of his father's plant, of a youngblack man accused of rape. This enraged the young Fonda and he kept a keen awareness of prejudice for his entire adult life. By his senior year in high school, Fonda had grown to more than six feet tall, but remained a shy teenager. He attended the University of Minnesota, where he majored in journalism, but he did not graduate. He took a job with the Retail Credit Company.

Career Early stage work At age 20, Fonda started his acting career at the Omaha Community Playhouse, when his mother's friend Dodie Brando (mother ofMarlon Brando) recommended that he try out for a juvenile part in You and I, in which he was cast as Ricky. He was fascinated by the stage, learning everything from set construction to stage production, and embarrassed by his acting ability. When he received the lead in Merton of the Movies, he realized the beauty of acting as a profession, as it allowed him to deflect attention from his own tongue-tied personality and create stage characters relying on someone else's scripted words. Fonda decided to quit his job and go East in 1928 to strike his fortune. He arrived on Cape Cod and played a role at the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Massachusetts; a friend took him over to Falmouth, where he quickly became a valued member of the new University Players, an intercollegiate summer stock company. There he worked with Margaret Sullavan, his future wife. James Stewart joined the Players months after Fonda left, and they later became lifelong friends. He landed his first professional role in the University Players production of The Jest, by Sem Benelli.

Joshua Logan, a young sophomore at Princeton who had been double-cast in the show, gave Fonda the part of Tornaquinci, "an elderly Italian with long, white beard and heavy wig." Also in the cast of The Jest with Fonda and Logan were Bretaigne Windust, Kent Smith, and Eleanor Phelps. The tall (6'1.5") and slim (160 lbs) Fonda headed for New York City, where he was soon joined by Stewart (after Fonda's short marriage to Margaret Sullavan ended.) The two men were roommates and honed their skills on Broadway. Fonda appeared in theatrical productions from 1926 to 1934. They fared no better than many Americans in and out of work during the Great Depression, sometimes lacking enough money to take the subway.

Entering Hollywood Fonda in Jezebel (1938) Fonda got the first break, as he was hired to make his first film appearance in 1935 as Janet Gaynor'sleading man in 20th Century Fox's screen adaptation of The Farmer Takes a Wife; he reprised his role from the Broadway production of the same name, which had gained him critical recognition. Suddenly, Fonda was making $3,000 a week and dining with Hollywood stars such as Carole Lombard. Stewart soon followed him to Hollywood, and they roomed together again, in lodgings next door to Greta Garbo. In 1935 Fonda starred in the RKO film I Dream Too Much with the opera star Lily Pons. The New York Times announced him as "Henry Fonda, the most likable of the new crop of romantic juveniles." Fonda's film career blossomed as he costarred with Sylvia Sidney andFred MacMurray in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936), the first Technicolor movie filmed outdoors.

He starred with ex-wife Margaret Sullavan in The Moon's Our Home, and a short re-kindling of their relationship led to a brief but temporary consideration of re-marriage. Fonda got the nod for the lead role in You Only Live Once (1937), also costarring Sidney, and directed by Fritz Lang. He was a critical success opposite Bette Davis, who had picked him, in the film Jezebel (1938). This was followed by the title role in Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), his first collaboration with director John Ford, and that year he played Frank James in Jesse James (1939). Another 1939 film was Drums Along the Mohawk, also directed by Ford. Henry Fonda in The Lady Eve (1941) Fonda's successes led Ford to recruit him to play "Tom Joad" in the film version of John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath (1940).

A reluctant Darryl Zanuck, who preferredTyrone Power, insisted on Fonda's signing a seven-year contract with his studioTwentieth Century-Fox.[20] Fonda agreed, and was ultimately nominated for an Academy Award for his work in the 1940 film, which many consider to be his finest role. Fonda starred in The Return of Frank James (1940) with Gene Tierney. He then played oppositeBarbara Stanwyck in Preston Sturges' The Lady Eve (1941), and again teamed with Tierney in the successful screwball comedy Rings on Her Fingers (1942). She was one of Fonda's favorite co-stars, and they appeared in three films together. He was acclaimed for his role in The Ox-Bow Incident (1943). Fonda after enlisting in United States Navy in November 1942 Fonda enlisted in the Navy to fight in World War II, saying, "I don't want to be in a fake war in a studio." Previously, he and Stewart had helped raise funds for the defense of Britain.

Fonda served for three years, initially as a Quartermaster 3rd Class on thedestroyer USS Satterlee. He was later commissioned as a Lieutenant Junior Grade in Air Combat Intelligence in the Central Pacific and was awarded the Navy Presidential Unit Citation and the Bronze Star. Post-war career After the war, Fonda took a break from movies and attended Hollywood parties and enjoyed civilian life. He and Stewart would listen to records and invite Johnny Mercer,Hoagy Carmichael, Dinah Shore, and Nat King Cole over for music, with the latter giving the family piano lessons.[24] Fonda played Wyatt Earp in John Ford's My Darling Clementine (1946) and appeared in the film Fort Apache (1948) as a rigid Army colonel, along with John Wayne and Shirley Temple in her first adult role. Fonda did seven post-war films until his contract with Fox expired, the last being Otto Preminger's Daisy Kenyon (1947), opposite Joan Crawford.

Fonda in Navy uniform Refusing another long-term studio contract, Fonda returned to Broadway, wearing his own officer's cap to originate the title role in Mister Roberts, a comedy about the Navy, where Fonda, a junior officer, wages a private war against the captain. He won a 1948 Tony Award for the part. Fonda followed that by reprising his performance in the national tour and with successful stage runs in Point of No Return and The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. After an eight-year absence from films, he starred in the 1955 film version of Mister Roberts opposite James Cagney, William Powell and Jack Lemmon, continuing a pattern of bringing his acclaimed stage roles to life on the big screen. On the set of Mister Roberts, Fonda came to blows with John Ford, who punched him during filming, and Fonda vowed never to work for the director again. While he kept that vow, Fonda spoke glowingly of Ford in Peter Bogdanovich's documentary Directed by John Ford.

Fonda next acted in Paramount Pictures's production of the Leo Tolstoy epic War and Peace (1956), in which he played Pierre Bezukhov opposite Audrey Hepburn; it took two years to shoot. Fonda worked with Alfred Hitchcock in 1956, playing a man falsely accused of robbery in The Wrong Man; the unusual semi-documentary work of Hitchcock's was based on an actual incident and partly filmed on location. Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, and Fonda in a live 1955 TV version of The Petrified Forest In 1957, Fonda made his first foray into production with 12 Angry Men, based on a teleplay and a script by Reginald Rose and directed by Sidney Lumet. The low-budget production was completed in seventeen days of filming, mostly in one claustrophobic jury room. It had a strong cast, including Jack Klugman, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam, and E. G. Marshall. The intense film about twelve jurors deciding the fate of a young Puerto Rican man accused of murder was well received by critics worldwide.

Fonda shared theAcademy Award and Golden Globe nominations with co-producer Reginald Rose and won the 1958 BAFTA Award for Best Actor for his performance as "Juror #8", who with logic and persistence eventually sways all the jurors to an acquittal. Early on the film drew poorly, but after winning critical acclaim and awards, it proved a success. In spite of the good outcome, Fonda vowed that he would never produce a movie again, fearing that failing as a producer might derail his acting career. After acting in the western moviesThe Tin Star (1957) and Warlock (1959), Fonda returned to the production seat for theNBC western television series The Deputy (1959–1961), in which he starred as Marshal Simon Fry. His co-stars were Allen Case and Read Morgan. Fonda in How the West Was Won During the 1960s, Fonda performed in a number of war and western epics, including 1962's The Longest Day and How the West Was Won, 1965's In Harm's Way and Battle of the Bulge.

In the Cold War suspense film Fail-Safe (1964), Fonda played the President of the United States who tries to avert a nuclear holocaust through tense negotiations with the Soviets after American bombers are mistakenly ordered to attack the USSR. He also returned to more light-hearted cinema in Spencer's Mountain (1963), which was the inspiration for the TV series, The Waltons. Fonda appeared against type as the villain 'Frank' in 1968's Once Upon a Time in the West. After initially turning down the role, he was convinced to accept it by actor Eli Wallach and director Sergio Leone, who flew from Italy to the United States to persuade him to take the part. Fonda had planned on wearing a pair of brown-colored contact lenses, but Leone preferred the paradox of contrasting close-up shots of Fonda's innocent-looking blue eyes with the vicious personality of the character Fonda played. Fonda's relationship with Jimmy Stewart survived their disagreements over politics — Fonda was a liberal Democrat, and Stewart aconservative Republican. After a heated argument, they avoided talking politics with each other. The two men teamed up for 1968'sFirecreek, where Fonda again played the heavy.

In 1970, Fonda and Stewart costarred in the western The Cheyenne Social Club, a minor film in which they humorously argued politics. They had first appeared together on film in On Our Merry Way (1948), a comedy which also starred William Demarest and Fred MacMurray and featured a grown-up Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, who had acted as a child in Our Gang. Late career Despite approaching his seventies, Fonda continued to work in theater, television and film through the 1970s. In 1970, Fonda appeared in three films, the most successful The Cheyenne Social Club. The other two films were Too Late the Hero, in which Fonda played a secondary role, and There Was a Crooked Man, about Paris Pitman Jr. (played by Kirk Douglas) trying to escape from an Arizona prison. Fonda returned to both foreign and television productions, which provided career sustenance through a decade in which many aging screen actors suffered waning careers. He starred in the ABC television series The Smith Family between 1971 and 1972.

A TV-movie adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel, 1973's The Red Pony, earned Fonda an Emmy nomination. After the unsuccessfulHollywood melodrama, Ash Wednesday, he filmed three Italian productions released in 1973 and 1974. The most successful of these, My Name is Nobody, presented Fonda in a rare comedic performance as an old gunslinger whose plans to retire are dampened by a "fan" of sorts. Fonda continued stage acting throughout his last years, including several demanding roles in Broadway plays. He returned to Broadway in 1974 for the biographical drama, Clarence Darrow, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. Fonda's health had been deteriorating for years, but his first outward symptoms occurred after a performance of the play in April 1974, when he collapsed from exhaustion. After the appearance of a heart arrhythmia brought on by prostate cancer, he had a pacemaker installed following cancer surgery. Fonda returned to the play in 1975.

After the run of a 1978 play, First Monday of October, he took the advice of his doctors and quit plays, though he continued to star in films and television. Fonda appeared in a revival of The Time of Your Life that opened in March 17, 1972 at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles where Fonda, Richard Dreyfuss, Gloria Grahame, Ron Thompson, Strother Martin, Jane Alexander, Lewis J. Stadlen,Richard X. Slattery and Pepper Martin were among the cast with Edwin Sherin directing. In 1976, Fonda appeared in several notable television productions, the first being Collision Course, the story of the volatile relationship between President Harry Truman (E. G. Marshall) and General MacArthur (Fonda), produced by ABC. After an appearance in the acclaimed Showtime broadcast of Almos' a Man, based on a story by Richard Wright, he starred in the epic NBCminiseries Captains and Kings, based on Taylor Caldwell's novel. Three years later, he appeared in ABC's Roots: The Next Generations, but the miniseries was overshadowed by its predecessor, Roots.

Also in 1976, Fonda starred in the World War IIblockbuster Midway. Fonda finished the 1970s in a number of disaster films. The first of these was the 1977 Italian killer octopus thriller Tentacoli(Tentacles) and Rollercoaster, in which Fonda appeared with Richard Widmark and a young Helen Hunt. He performed again with Widmark, Olivia de Havilland, Fred MacMurray, and José Ferrer in the killer bee action film The Swarm. He also acted in the global disaster film Meteor (his second role as a sitting President of the United States after Fail-Safe), with Sean Connery, Natalie Woodand Karl Malden, and the Canadian production City on Fire, which also featured Shelley Winters and Ava Gardner. Fonda had a small role with his son, Peter, in Wanda Nevada (1979), with Brooke Shields. As Fonda's health declined and he took longer breaks between filming, critics began to take notice of his extensive body of work. In 1979, the Tony Awards committee gave Fonda a special award for his achievements on Broadway.

Lifetime Achievement awards from the Golden Globes and Academy Awards followed in 1980 and 1981, respectively. Fonda continued to act into the early 1980s, though all but one of the productions he was featured in before his death were for television. The television works included the critically acclaimed live performance of Preston Jones' The Oldest Living Graduate and the Emmy nominated Gideon's Trumpet (co-starring Fay Wray in her last performance) about Clarence Gideon's fight to have the right to publicly funded legal counsel for the indigent. Fonda won an Academy Award for his work with Katharine Hepburn in On Golden Pond On Golden Pond in 1981, the film adaptation of Ernest Thompson's play, marked one final professional and personal triumph for Fonda. Directed by Mark Rydell, the project provided unprecedented collaborations between Fonda and Katharine Hepburn, along with Fonda and his daughter, Jane. The elder Fonda played an emotionally brittle and distant father who becomes more accessible at the end of his life. Jane Fonda has said that elements of the story mimicked their real-life relationship, and helped them resolve certain issues.

She bought the film rights in the hope that her father would play the role, and later described it as "a gift to my father that was so unbelievably successful." Premiered in December 1981, the film was well received by critics, and after a limited release on December 4 On Golden Pond developed enough of an audience to be widely released on January 22. With 10 Academy Award nominations, the film earned nearly $120 million at the box office, becoming an unexpected blockbuster. In addition to wins for Hepburn (Best Actress), and Thompson (Screenplay), On Golden Pond brought Fonda his only Oscar - for Best Actor (he was the oldest recipient of the award; it also earned him a Golden Globe Best Actor award). Fonda was by that point too ill to attend the ceremony, and his daughter Jane accepted on his behalf. She said when accepting the award that her dad would probably quip, "Well, ain't I lucky." After Fonda's death, some film critics called this performance "his last and greatest role". Fonda's final performance was in the 1981 television drama Summer Solstice with Myrna Loy.

It was filmed after On Golden Pondhad wrapped and Fonda was in rapidly declining health. Personal life Marriages and children[edit source | editbeta] Fonda was married five times and had three children, one of them adopted. His marriage to Margaret Sullavan in 1931 soon ended in separation, which was finalized in a 1933 divorce. In 1936, he married Frances Ford Seymour Brokaw, widow of a wealthy industrialist, George Tuttle Brokaw. The Brokaws had a daughter, Frances de Villers, nicknamed "Pan," who had been born soon after the Brokaws marriage in 1931. Fonda met his future wife Frances at Denham Studios in England on the set of Wings of the Morning, the first British picture to be filmed in technicolor. They had two children, Peter and Jane, both of whom became successful actors. They have each had Oscar nominations and wins. In August 1949, Fonda announced to Frances that he wanted a divorce so he could remarry; their thirteen years of marriage had not been happy ones for him.

Devastated by Fonda's confession, and plagued by emotional problems for many years, Frances went into the Austen Riggs Psychiatric Hospital in January 1950 for treatment. She committed suicide there on April 14. Before her death she had written six notes to various individuals, but left no final message for her husband. Fonda quickly arranged a private funeral with only himself and his mother-in-law, Sophie Seymour, in attendance. Years later Dr. Margaret Gibson, the psychiatrist who had treated Frances at Austen Riggs, described Henry Fonda: "He was a cold, self-absorbed person, a complete narcissist." Later in 1950, Fonda married Susan Blanchard, with whom he had been having an affair since sometime in 1948. She was twenty-one years old and the stepdaughter of Oscar Hammerstein II. Together, they adopted a daughter, Amy Fishman (born 1953).They divorced three years later. Blanchard was in awe of Fonda, and she described her role in the marriage as "a geisha," doing everything she could to please him, dealing with and solving problems he would not acknowledge.

In 1957, Fonda married the Italian countess Afdera Franchetti; they divorced in 1961. Soon after, Fonda married Shirlee Mae Adams, and remained with her until his death in 1982. Fonda's relationship with his children has been described as "emotionally distant." Fonda loathed displays of feeling in himself or others, and this was a consistent part of his character. Whenever he felt that his emotional wall was being breached, he had outbursts of anger, exhibiting a furious temper that terrified his family. In Peter Fonda's 1998 autobiography Don't Tell Dad (1998), he described how he was never sure how his father felt about him. He never volunteered to his father that he loved him until he was elderly, and Peter finally heard, "I love you, son." His daughter Jane rejected her father's friendships with Republican actors such as John Wayne and James Stewart. Their relationship became extremely strained as Jane Fonda became a left-wing activist. Jane Fonda reported feeling detached from her father, especially during her early acting days. In 1958 she met Lee Strasberg while visiting her father at Malibu.

The Fonda and Strasberg families were neighbors, and she had developed a friendship with Strasberg's daughter, Susan. Jane Fonda began studying acting with Strasberg, learning the techniques of "The Method" of which Strasberg was a renowned proponent. This proved to be a pivotal point in her career. As Jane Fonda developed her skill as an actress, she became frustrated with her father's talent that, to her, appeared a demonstration of effortless ability. Politics Fonda was an ardent supporter of the Democratic Party and "an admirer" of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1960, Fonda appeared in a campaign commercial for presidential candidate John F. Kennedy. The ad focused on Kennedy's naval service during World War II, specifically the famous PT-109 incident.

On acting In the late 1950s, when Jane Fonda asked her father how he prepared before going on stage, she was baffled by his answer, "I don't know, I stand there, I think about my wife, Afdera, I don't know." The writer Al Aronowitz, while working on a profile of Jane Fonda for The Saturday Evening Post in the 1960s, asked Henry Fonda about Method acting: "I can't articulate about the Method", he told me, "because I never studied it. I don't mean to suggest that I have any feelings one way or the other about it...I don't know what the Method is and I don't care what the Method is. Everybody's got a method. Everybody can't articulate about their method, and I can't, if I have a method—and Jane sometimes says that I use the Method, that is, the capital letter Method, without being aware of it. Maybe I do; it doesn't matter." Aronowitz reported Jane saying, "My father can't articulate the way he works. He just can't do it.

He's not even conscious of what he does, and it made him nervous for me to try to articulate what I was trying to do. And I sensed that immediately, so we did very little talking about it...he said, 'Shut up, I don't want to hear about it.' He didn't want me to tell him about it, you know. He wanted to make fun of it." Death and legacy Fonda died at his Los Angeles home on August 12, 1982, from heart disease. Fonda's wife, Shirlee, his daughter Jane and his son Peter were at his side when he died. He suffered from prostate cancer, but this did not directly cause his death and was noted only as a concurrent ailment on his death certificate. Fonda asked that no funeral be held, and he was promptly cremated. President Ronald W. Reagan, himself a former actor, hailed Fonda as "a true professional dedicated to excellence in his craft. He graced the screen with a sincerity and accuracy which made him a legend." In the years since his death, Fonda has become more highly regarded as an actor than during his life.

He is widely recognized as one of the Hollywood greats of the classic era. On the centenary of his birth, May 16, 2005, Turner Classic Movies honored him with a marathon of his films. Also in May 2005, the United States Post Office released a 37-cent postage stamp with an artist's drawing of Fonda as part of their "Hollywood legends" series. The Fonda Theatre in Hollywood, California, originally known as the Carter DeHaven Music Box, was named for the actor in 1985 by the Nederlander Organization. Filmography From the beginning of his career in 1935 through his last projects in 1981, Fonda appeared in 106 films, television programs, and shorts. Through the course of his career he appeared in many critically acclaimed films, including such classics as 12 Angry Men andThe Ox-Bow Incident. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in 1940's The Grapes of Wrath and won for his part in 1981's On Golden Pond.

Fonda made his mark in Westerns (which included his most villainous role as Frank in Once Upon a Time in the West), war films, and made frequent appearances in both television and foreign productions late in his career.

Broadway stage performances The Game of Love and Death (November 1929 – January 1930) I Loved You, Wednesday (October – December 1932) New Faces of 1934 (Revue; March – July 1934) The Farmer Takes a Wife (October 1934 – January 1935) Blow Ye Winds (September – October 1937) Mister Roberts (February 1948 – January 1951) Point of No Return (December 1951 – November 1952) The Caine Mutiny (January 1954 – January 1955) Two for the Seesaw (January 1958 – October 1959) Silent Night, Lonely Night (December 1959 – March 1960) Critic's Choice (December 1960 – May 1961) A Gift of Time (February – May 1962) Generation (October 1965 – June 1966) Our Town (November – December 1969) Clarence Darrow (

March – April 1974; March 1975) First Monday in October (October – December 1978) Bibliography Collier, Peter (1991).

The Fondas: A Hollywood Dynasty. Putnam. ISBN 0-399-13592-8. Fonda, Henry (1982). Fonda: My Life. Fulcrum Publishing. ISBN 0-453-00402-4. Fonda, Jane (2005). My Life So Far. Random House. ISBN 0-375-50710-8. Fonda, Peter (1998). Don't Tell Dad. Hyperion. ISBN 0-7868-6111-8. Houghton, Norris (1951). But Not Forgotten: The Adventure of the University Players. New York: William Sloane Associates. James, John Douglas (1976). The MGM Story. Crown Publishers. ISBN 0-517-52389-2. McKinney, Devin (2012). The Man Who Saw a Ghost: The Life and Work of Henry Fonda. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 1-250-00841-7.

Roberts, Allen and Max Goldstein (1984). Henry Fonda: A Biography. McFarland & Co. ISBN 0-89950-114-1. Sweeney, Kevin (1992). Henry Fonda: A BioBibliography. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-26571-2. Thomas, Tony (1990). The Films of Henry Fonda. Citadel Press. ISBN 0-8065-1189-3. My Darling Clementine (1946) Clanton: Might raise it to five dollars silver. Wyatt: Made more than that in Mexico. Clanton: They'll be a sorry looking lot by the time they get to California, son. Wyatt: They'll feed out when we get to grass country. Sure is rough looking country. Ain't no cow country. Mighty different where I come from. What do they call this place? Clanton: Just over the rise there, a big town called Tombstone. A fine town. Wyatt: Tombstone! Yeah, I heard of it.

Well, me and my brothers might ride in there tonight. Get ourselves a shave maybe. A glass of beer. Clanton: Yeah! You'd enjoy yourself. Wide-awake, wide-open town Tombstone. Get anything you want there. The three older brothers eat their supper at their campsite, teasing their youngest brother James about his solid silver cross medal ("twenty-five American dollars worth of solid silver") that he plans to take to his blonde sweetheart Cory Sue for an impending marriage. Then, they leave the cattle for James to mind and mount up, riding off to spend the evening in Tombstone for shaves and glasses of beer. As the younger brother watches them leave, he calls out their names, with the camera lingering on his face: So long Wyatt, Morgan, so long Virgil. When they arrive at the uncivilized Tombstone under a darkened, turbulent sky, they discover it is the "wide-open town" that Old Man Clanton had promised - a rough, raw, lawless and chaotic, sinful hellhole, filled with bustling, raucous saloons.

The brothers first enter the Bon Ton Tonsorial Parlor, "the barber shop" according to Wyatt, and he settles into the newly-purchased barber's chair in front of the white-coated attendant for a "shave." When asked what they are doing, Wyatt answers: "Just cattlemen, passing through here. Shave please." [Wyatt's first stop in Tombstone, the barber shop, is an indication of his latent tendencies toward civilization and the establishment of a community.] His shave is interrupted by gunshots that narrowly miss him and shatter the mirror in the shop. When the barber flees, Wyatt, a law-and-order man, expresses his exasperation with the situation, "What kind of a town is this? Barber?" while walking outside with his face still lathered up and carrying his barber's sheet. Dance-hall girls run screaming from the Oriental Saloon across the street [later in the film after some long establishing shots, the saloon is nowhere to be seen across the street] where a reckless, drunken Indian Charlie (Charles Stevens), a symbol of the wildness of Tombstone, shoots his gun into the air.

Luke (Harry Woods), the town's Marshal, resigns and turns in his badge to the town's Mayor (Roy Roberts) rather than face the source of the gunshots: "I ain't commitin' suicide on myself." Wyatt steps into the crowd and again asks: What kind of a town is this anyway? Excuse me ma'am. A man can't get a shave without gettin' his head blowed off. When the marshal turns and leaves, Wyatt is exasperated that no one will confront the drunk and take charge. Disgusted and still lathered up, he hands his barber sheet to the Mayor, picks up a heavy rock, enters the saloon through the second story window, successfully pursues and subdues the Indian, and then drags the unconscious man by his heels out into the street, where the townspeople have been witnessing the quick dispatch of the man. He repeats his question one more time to everyone: "What kind of a town is this anyway?

Selling liquor to Indians." He runs the Indian out of town: "Indian - get out of town and stay out!" The mayor offers Wyatt the marshal's position for $200 a month (and then adds $50 more), but he declines: "Not interested. I'm just passin' through tryin' to get me a relaxin' little shave." Wyatt calls out for the barber in the crowd to continue his shave: "Hey Mr. Bon Ton. Shave please." When he identifies himself as Wyatt Earp, the mayor knows of his reputation: Mayor: Wyatt? You're not by any chance the marshal from Dodge City? Wyatt: Ex-marshal. When they return to their campsite in the rain, they find their younger brother killed, lying face down on the wet ground, and their cattle herd is stolen. Wyatt returns to town, wakes up the mayor, and offers to take the Marshal's job immediately to tame the community of Tombstone [its name symbolizes death], bring decency to the wild land, and seek revenge - legally - for the killing: Mayor? Is that Marshal job still open?...I'll take it...providin' my brothers are my deputies.

Then, Wyatt asks about the town's sources of power: Wyatt: Who runs the gamblin' around here? Mayor: Doc Holliday mostly. Wyatt: Who runs the cattle? Mayor: The Clantons. Old Man Clanton and his four sons. In the next scene as he leaves the hotel where the mayor lives, Wyatt comes face-to-face a second time with Old Man Clanton and his clan who are coming in from the rain. In a series of confrontational closeups, he tells them of the cattle rustling and implies in a subtle exchange that his duty as newly-appointed Marshal is to find his brother's murderers. They scoff at the idea of a Marshal in Tombstone until they learn his name, setting themselves up for the inevitable conflict: Wyatt: I didn't get very far with 'em. They was rustled this evenin'. Clanton: So, well, that's too bad. You should be headin' for California, heh? Wyatt: No, I figured on stickin' around for a while. Got myself a job. Clanton: Cow-punchin'? Wyatt: Marshal. Clanton: Marshaling? In Tombstone? Ha, ha, ha.

Well good luck to you Mr. uh...? Wyatt: Earp. Wyatt Earp. (Clanton looks back at Wyatt with a shocked expression on his face.) Alone, Wyatt buries his brother out by their campsite, not in Tombstone's cemetery. He marks the gravesite with a tombstone engraved: "JAMES EARP, BORN 1864, DIED 1882." In a touching gravesite scene against a Monument Valley backdrop, he solemnly speaks to his dead kid brother, promising him that he will consecrate himself to restoring order for future generations. He also appeals to their unseen father (Pa): 1864, 1882. 18 years. You didn't get much of a chance did you James? I wrote to Pa and Cory Sue. They're gonna be all busted up over it. Cory Sue's young, but Pa. I guess he'll never get over it. I'll be comin' out to see you regular James. So will Morg and Virg. I'm gonna be around here for a while. Can't tell. Maybe when we leave this country young kids like you will be able to grow up and live safe.

As newly-appointed law enforcer, Wyatt is interested in gathering evidence to prove that the Clantons murdered his brother and stole their cattle. In the town's saloon while Earp plays poker, a hot-blooded Mexican dance-hall girl named Chihuahua (Linda Darnell) tries to distract him, putting her leg up on the table, and then shortly later, singing to him: Ten thousand cattle Ten thousand cattle straying, ...Ten thousand cattle straying. To one of his poker playing partners, a professional gambler he calls Mr. Gambler (Earle Foxe), Wyatt relates his love of poker: Sir, I really love poker. Every hand a different problem. Got to do a little figurin' here. What would I do if I was in your boots Mr. Gambler? (Chihuahua signals his opponent about the cards Wyatt holds.) You drew three cards and I stood pat and yet you raised me. Now the question is, what should I do? (Wyatt looks up at Chihuahua behind him.) Yeah, mighty interestin' game, poker. Game of chance.

Sensing that Chihuahua has been "increasing the odds" against him, he drags her outside and threatens her, mistaking her for an Apache Indian: Wyatt: If I catch you doin' that again, I'll run ya back to the Apache reservation where you belong. Chihuahua: Listen, you tin star Marshal. This is Doc Holliday's town, and when he comes back...(She slaps him across the face - he pushes her into the water of a horse's trough.) When he returns to his game, saloon chief "Doc" Holliday (Victor Mature) makes a dramatic entrance by striding into the saloon. The reactions of the poker players to his entrance signal his domineering authority and presence. The hands of the professional gambler pause on his winnings, and then he quickly tries to collect the money before Doc marches over to the poker table. Holliday asserts his authority over "Mr. Gambler" by knocking his hat off and ordering the professional gambler out of town. An oppressive silence falls over the saloon as Holliday walks back to the end of the cleared-out bar and stands alone.

The poker game is quickly curtailed while Wyatt complains: "Sure is a hard town for a fella to have a quiet game of poker in." The Marshal scoops his poker chips into his hat (which he puts on), and then walks down the saloon bar toward Doc. Unaffected by Holliday's presence, Wyatt joins him at the end of the bar. As they look each other over and size each other up, they both know each others' reputations. Holliday challenges the new Marshal's authority in the town known for death and the "biggest graveyard west of the Rockies": Holliday: I know all about you and your reason for being here. Wyatt: Heard a lot about you too, Doc. You left your mark around in Deadwood, Denver and places. In fact, a man could almost follow your trail goin' from graveyard to graveyard. Holliday: There's one here too, biggest graveyard west of the Rockies. Marshals and I usually get along much better when we understand that right away. Wyatt: Get your meanin' Doc. Holliday: Good. As his "guest," Holliday firmly insists that Earp have a glass of champagne rather than a standard whiskey shot.

By accepting the champagne drink, Wyatt somehow acknowledges and accepts Holliday's power, and things become more relaxed in the saloon. Henry Fonda (Actor) - Pics, Videos, Dating, & News Henry Fonda Male Born May 17, 1905 Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor. Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins. He made his Hollywood debut in 1935, and his career gained momentum after his Academy Award-nominated performance as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath, a 1940 adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel about an Oklahoma family who moved west during the Dust Bowl.… Read More related links Versions Of A Life NYTimes - Sep 11, 2011 'JANE FONDA The Private Life of a Public Woman By Patricia Bosworth Illustrated. 596 pp. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. $30.

There\'s often a moment in a biographer\'s life when the subject, once nonchalantly inaccessible or perhaps even hostile, decides that he must satisfy his curiosity about the project at the price of tossing scraps to this desperate' Fonda Biography Reveals Actress As Complex Chameleon Tbo.Com Google News - Aug 28, 2011 'The answer likely depends on whether you remember her as sex kitten or political activist; peddler of workout videos or <mark>Henry Fonda</mark>&#39;s daughter; Oscar-winning actress or the besotted wife who reinvented herself for each of her three marriages. ...&nbsp;-&nbsp;-' Return To'golden Pond' The Union Leader Google News - Aug 25, 2011 '... which first hit Broadway in the late 1970s, as well as the 30th anniversary of the film version, which was shot mostly on location on the shores of the Squam Lakes and starred <mark>Henry Fonda</mark>, Katherine Hepburn, Jane Fonda and Dabney Coleman' Does Morgan Freeman Really Want This President 'pissed Off'?

Big Hollywood Google News - Aug 24, 2011 'I believe he represents the best of classic American acting since <mark>Henry Fonda</mark>. With similar aesthetics and discipline, both he and <mark>Henry Fonda</mark> have shown young American actors how to do âmore with lessâ but do it with sharpshooting accuracy' Learn about the memorable moments in the evolution of Henry Fonda. CHILDHOOD 1905 Birth Born on May 16, 1905. TWENTIES 1928 23 Years Old Fonda decided to quit his job and go East in 1928 to seek his fortune. … Read More He arrived on Cape Cod and played a minor role at the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Massachusetts. A friend took him to Falmouth, MA where he joined and quickly became a valued member of the University Players, an intercollegiate summer stock company. There he worked with Margaret Sullavan, his future wife. James Stewart joined the Players a few months after Fonda left, though they were soon to become lifelong friends.

Read Less Show Less Fonda left the Players at the end of their 1931-1932 season after appearing in his first professional role in The Jest, by Sem Benelli. … Read More Joshua Logan, a young sophomore at Princeton who had been double-cast in the show, gave Fonda the part of Tornaquinci, "an elderly Italian man with a long white beard and even longer hair." Also in the cast of The Jest with Fonda and Logan were Bretaigne Windust, Kent Smith, and Eleanor Phelps.<br /><br /> The tall (6 ft, 1.5 in) and slim (160 lb) Fonda headed for New York City, to be with his then wife, Margaret Sullavan. The marriage was brief, but when James Stewart came to New York his luck changed. Getting contact information from Joshua Logan, Jimmy, as he was called, found Hank Fonda and these small town boys found they had a lot in common, as long as they didn't discuss politics. The two men became roommates and honed their skills on Broadway. Fonda appeared in theatrical productions from 1926 to 1934.

They fared no better than many Americans in and out of work during the Great Depression, sometimes lacking enough money to take the subway. Read Less Fonda was married five times and had three children, one of them adopted. His marriage to Margaret Sullavan in 1931 soon ended in separation, which was finalized in a 1933 divorce. THIRTIES Show Less … Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 â August 12, 1982) was a celebrated American film and stage actor with a career spanning more than five decades. <br /><br />Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins. Read Less He made his Hollywood debut in 1935, and his career gained momentum after his Academy Award-nominated performance as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath, a 1940 adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel about an Oklahoma family who moved west during the Dust Bowl.

… Read More Throughout six decades in Hollywood, Fonda cultivated a strong, appealing screen image in such classics as The Ox-Bow Incident, Mister Roberts and 12 Angry Men. Later, Fonda moved both toward darker epics such as Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West and lighter roles in family comedies such as Yours, Mine and Ours with Lucille Ball, winning the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 54th Academy Awards for the movie On Golden Pond, his final film role.<br /><br /> Fonda was the patriarch of a family of famous actors, including daughter Jane Fonda, son Peter Fonda, granddaughter Bridget Fonda, and grandson Troy Garity. His family and close friends called him "Hank". In 1999, he was named the sixth-Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute.<br /><br /> Fonda's ancestors from Genoa, Italy, migrated to the Netherlands in the 15th century. In 1642, a branch of the Fonda family immigrated to the Dutch colony of New Netherland on the East Coast of North America.

They were among the first Dutch population to settle in what is now upstate New York, establishing the town of Fonda, New York. By 1888, many of their descendants had relocated to Nebraska. Read Less Fonda got his first break in films when he was hired in 1935 as Janet Gaynor's leading man in 20th Century Fox's screen adaptation of The Farmer Takes a Wife; he reprised his role from the Broadway production of the same name, which had gained him critical recognition. … Read More Suddenly, Fonda was making $3,000 a week and dining with Hollywood stars such as Carole Lombard. Stewart soon followed him to Hollywood, and they roomed together again, in lodgings next door to Greta Garbo. Read Less In 1935, Fonda starred in the RKO film I Dream Too Much with the opera star Lily Pons.

… Read More The New York Times announced him as "Henry Fonda, the most likable of the new crop of romantic juveniles." Fonda's film career blossomed as he costarred with Sylvia Sidney and Fred MacMurray in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936), the first Technicolor movie filmed outdoors.<br /><br /> He starred with ex-wife Margaret Sullavan in The Moon's Our Home, and a short rekindling of their relationship led to a brief but temporary consideration of remarriage. Fonda got the nod for the lead role in You Only Live Once (1937), also costarring Sidney, and directed by Fritz Lang. He was a critical success opposite Bette Davis, who had picked him, in the film Jezebel (1938). This was followed by the title role in Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), his first collaboration with director John Ford, and that year he played Frank James in Jesse James (1939). Another 1939 film was Drums Along the Mohawk, also directed by Ford.

Read Less 1936 31 Years Old In 1936, he married Frances Ford Seymour Brokaw, widow of a wealthy industrialist, George Tuttle Brokaw. The Brokaws had a daughter, Frances de Villers, nicknamed "Pan", who had been born soon after the Brokaws marriage in 1931. … Read More Fonda met his future wife Frances at Denham Studios in England on the set of Wings of the Morning, the first British picture to be filmed in Technicolor. They had two children, Jane (born December 21, 1937) and Peter (born February 23, 1940), both of whom became successful actors. They have each had Oscar nominations. Read Less 1940 35 Years Old … Fonda's successes led Ford to recruit him to play Tom Joad in the film version of John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath (1940). A reluctant Darryl Zanuck, who preferred Tyrone Power, insisted on Fonda's signing a seven-year contract with his studio, Twentieth Century-Fox.

Read Less Fonda agreed, and was ultimately nominated for an Academy Award for his work in the 1940 film, which many consider to be his finest role. … Read More Fonda starred in The Return of Frank James (1940) with Gene Tierney. He then played opposite Barbara Stanwyck in Preston Sturges' The Lady Eve (1941), and again teamed with Tierney in the successful screwball comedy Rings on Her Fingers (1942). She was one of Fonda's favorite co-stars, and they appeared in three films together. He was acclaimed for his role in The Ox-Bow Incident (1943).<br /><br /> Fonda enlisted in the United States Navy to fight in World War II, saying, "I don't want to be in a fake war in a studio." Previously, Stewart and he had helped raise funds for the defense of Britain. Fonda served for three years, initially as a Quartermaster 3rd Class on the destroyer. He was later commissioned as a Lieutenant Junior Grade in Air Combat Intelligence in the Central Pacific and was awarded the Navy Presidential Unit Citation and the Bronze Star.

Read Less FORTIES Show Less … After the war, Fonda took a break from movies and attended Hollywood parties and enjoyed civilian life. Stewart and Fonda would listen to records and invite Johnny Mercer, Hoagy Carmichael, Dinah Shore, and Nat King Cole over for music, with the latter giving the family piano lessons. Fonda played Wyatt Earp in My Darling Clementine (1946), which was directed by John Ford. Fonda did seven postwar films until his contract with Fox expired, the last being Otto Preminger's Daisy Kenyon (1947), opposite Joan Crawford. He starred in The Fugitive (1947), which was the first film of Ford's new production company, Argosy Pictures. Read Less In 1948, he appeared in a subsequent Argosy/Ford production, Fort Apache, as a rigid Army colonel, along with John Wayne and Shirley Temple in her first adult role. … Read More Refusing another long-term studio contract, Fonda returned to Broadway, wearing his own officer's cap to originate the title role in Mister Roberts, a comedy about the Navy, where Fonda, a junior officer, wages a private war against the captain.

Read Less He won a 1948 Tony Award for the part. … Read More Fonda followed that by reprising his performance in the national tour and with successful stage runs in Point of No Return and The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. Read Less 1949 44 Years Old In August 1949, Fonda announced to Frances that he wanted a divorce so he could remarry; their 13 years of marriage had not been happy ones for him. … Read More Devastated by Fonda's confession, and plagued by emotional problems for many years, Frances went into the Austen Riggs Psychiatric Hospital in January 1950 for treatment. She committed suicide there on April 14. Before her death, she had written six notes to various individuals, but left no final message for her husband. Fonda quickly arranged a private funeral with only himself and his mother-in-law, Sophie Seymour, in attendance. Years later, Dr.

Margaret Gibson, the psychiatrist who had treated Frances at Austen Riggs, described Henry Fonda: "He was a cold, self-absorbed person, a complete narcissist." Read Less 1950 45 Years Old Later in 1950, Fonda married Susan Blanchard, with whom he had been having an affair since sometime in 1948. … Read More She was 21 years old, the daughter of Australian-born interior designer Dorothy Hammerstein, and the step-daughter of Oscar Hammerstein II. Together, they adopted a daughter, Amy Fishman (born 1953). They divorced three years later. Blanchard was in awe of Fonda, and she described her role in the marriage as "a geisha", doing everything she could to please him, dealing with and solving problems he would not acknowledge.

Read Less FIFTIES 1955 - 1956 2 More Events 1955 50 Years Old After an eight-year absence from films, he starred in the 1955 film version of Mister Roberts with James Cagney, William Powell, and Jack Lemmon, continuing a pattern of bringing his acclaimed stage roles to life on the big screen. … Read More On the set of Mister Roberts, Fonda came to blows with John Ford, who punched him during filming, and Fonda vowed never to work for the director again. While he kept that vow for years, Fonda spoke glowingly of Ford in Peter Bogdanovich's documentary Directed by John Ford and in a documentary on Ford's career alongside Ford and James Stewart. Fonda refused to participate until he learned that Ford had insisted on casting Fonda as the lead in the film version of Mr. Roberts, reviving Fonda's film career after concentrating on the stage for years.<br /><br /> After Mr.

Roberts, Fonda next acted in Paramount Pictures's production of the Leo Tolstoy epic War and Peace (1956), in which he played Pierre Bezukhov opposite Audrey Hepburn; it took two years to shoot. Read Less 1956 51 Years Old Fonda worked with Alfred Hitchcock in 1956, playing a man falsely accused of robbery in The Wrong Man; the unusual semidocumentary work of Hitchcock's was based on an actual incident and partly filmed on location. Show Less In 1957, Fonda made his first foray into production with 12 Angry Men, based on a teleplay and a script by Reginald Rose and directed by Sidney Lumet. … Read More The low-budget movie was completed in 17 days of filming, mostly in one claustrophobic jury room. It had a strong cast, including Jack Klugman, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam, and E. G. Marshall. The intense film about 12 jurors deciding the fate of a young Puerto Rican man accused of murder was well received by critics worldwide.

Read Less In 1957, Fonda married the Italian baroness Afdera Franchetti They divorced in 1961. 1958 53 Years Old Fonda shared the Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations with co-producer Reginald Rose and won the 1958 BAFTA Award for Best Actor for his performance as "Juror #8", who with logic and persistence eventually sways all the jurors to an acquittal. … Read More Early on, the film drew poorly, but after winning critical acclaim and awards, it proved a success. In spite of the good outcome, Fonda vowed that he would never produce a movie again, fearing that failing as a producer might derail his acting career. After acting in the western movies The Tin Star (1957) and Warlock (1959), Fonda returned to the production seat for the NBC western television series The Deputy (1959â1961), in which he starred as Marshal Simon Fry. His co-stars were Allen Case and Read Morgan.

Read Less 1960 55 Years Old Fonda was an ardent supporter of the Democratic Party and "an admirer" of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1960, Fonda appeared in a campaign commercial for presidential candidate John F. Kennedy. … Read More The ad focused on Kennedy's naval service during World War II, specifically the famous PT-109 incident.<br /><br /> In the late 1950s, when Jane Fonda asked her father how he prepared before going on stage, she was baffled by his answer, "I don't know, I stand there, I think about my wife, Afdera, I don't know."<br /><br /> The writer Al Aronowitz, while working on a profile of Jane Fonda for The Saturday Evening Post in the 1960s, asked Henry Fonda about method acting: "I can't articulate about the Method", he told me, "because I never studied it. I don't mean to suggest that I have any feelings one way or the other about it I don't know what the Method is and I don't care what the Method is. Everybody's got a method.

Everybody can't articulate about their method, and I can't, if I have a methodâand Jane sometimes says that I use the Method, that is, the capital letter Method, without being aware of it. Maybe I do; it doesn't matter." Read Less 1962 57 Years Old During the 1960s, Fonda performed in a number of war and western epics, including 1962's The Longest Day and the Cinerama production How the West Was Won, 1965's In Harm's Way, and Battle of the Bulge. … Read More In the Cold War suspense film Fail-Safe (1964), Fonda played the President of the United States who tries to avert a nuclear holocaust through tense negotiations with the Soviets after American bombers are mistakenly ordered to attack the USSR. He also returned to more light-hearted cinema in Spencer's Mountain (1963), which was the inspiration for the TV series, The Waltons.

Read Less LATE ADULTHOOD 1965 60 Years Old Soon after, in 1965, Fonda married Shirlee Mae Adams, and remained with her until his death in 1982. … Read More Fonda's relationship with his children has been described as "emotionally distant". Fonda loathed displays of feeling in himself or others, and this was a consistent part of his character. Whenever he felt that his emotional wall was being breached, he had outbursts of anger, exhibiting a furious temper that terrified his family. In Peter Fonda's 1998 autobiography Don't Tell Dad (1998), he described how he was never sure how his father felt about him. He never volunteered to his father that he loved him until he was elderly, and Peter finally heard, "I love you, son." His daughter Jane rejected her father's friendships with Republican actors such as John Wayne and James Stewart. Their relationship became extremely strained as Jane Fonda became a left-wing activist.<br /><br /> Jane Fonda reported feeling detached from her father, especially during her early acting days.

In 1958, she met Lee Strasberg while visiting her father at Malibu. The Fonda and Strasberg families were neighbors, and she had developed a friendship with Strasberg's daughter, Susan. Jane Fonda began studying acting with Strasberg, learning the techniques of "The Method" of which Strasberg was a renowned proponent. This proved to be a pivotal point in her career. As Jane Fonda developed her skill as an actress, she became frustrated with her father's talent that, to her, appeared a demonstration of effortless ability. Read Less What Is Film's Best Wyatt Earp Performance? | Moviefone What Is Film's Best Wyatt Earp Performance? by Gary Susman Call it 'Cowboys & Mobsters.' Harrison Ford is following up his elder statesman role in 'Cowboys & Aliens' by playing a venerable Western lawman, Wyatt Earp -- but instead of battling desperadoes in spurs, he'll be fighting gangsters in pinstripes. According to The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision blog, Ford is attached to star in 'Black Hats,' in which an aging Earp finds himself in Brooklyn, taking on the gangsters led by the young Al Capone.

Helping the septuagenarian lawman is his old partner-in-arms, Bat Masterson, who has become a New York sportswriter. (In real life, Earp lived until 1929, though he spent his last years in Los Angeles, not New York. Masterson did indeed become a New York sportswriter, and he died at his desk in 1921.) The screenplay is based on a novel by Max Allan Collins, who wrote the graphic novel that became the 2002 gangster epic 'Road to Perdition.' Ford would join a long line of iconic actors, including Henry Fonda, Burt Lancaster and James Stewart, who have portrayed the legendary lawman. Still, with so many Wyatt Earps -- some 50 or so previous incarnations in movies and TV -- can Ford's fanciful take stand out? Here are some of the most memorable Earps in movie history; check them out and see if you think Ford's version can stand tall enough to fill those boots.

Question: Which real life law enforcer did Henry Fonda play in the film My Darling Clementine?
Answer: Wyatt Earp